Small Business Essential Creative: Developing a Brand Narrative

The creative advantage you need is the one you’ve been dismissing.

Most small businesses grow using two tactics: either they’ll use close-your-eyes-and-hope, ad hoc advertising, or direct networking and referral (or both). Both of these methods are obviously low-cost options, and because small businesses usually need to keep a sharp eye on frugal budgeting, they often seem the only options available for attracting new business.

It’s strange when you think about it; a powerful tool that would help a business grow profit or help a message gain audience is often left aside in the name of expenses. yet this is the tool that can help expand business. Creative strategy literally pays for itself over time, making it not only a prudent expenditure, but an arguably necessary one for any business looking to grow.

“Creative strategy literally pays for itself over time, making it not only a prudent expenditure, but an arguably necessary one for any business looking to grow.”

Even with that compelling fact, small businesses will still often just wing it, and do the bare minimum. They will copy styles from other companies that “seem successful” on the surface. They will get excited about a momentary clever idea and try to run with that single ideas as if it were a full campaign. They will throw out ads or social media posts whenever they have a chance, hoping the next one will be “the one’ that starts an imaginary flood of interest. All ad hoc; all improvised. While the new growth of these small businesses creeps (at best) forward, they are wasting time and resources every time their creative branding is left to chance.

Yet some small enterprises have terrific networks keeping them afloat. Vibrant clientele whoo eagerly refers them to new business. Why do they need any proactive creative if their word-of-mouth is so strong, right? Yet this overconfidence is actually a factor that literals sets up a slowing – or full stop – of new business down he road. It’s like installing a low ceiling; relying only on networking savvy is a set up to limit long term growth. The lack of creative branding to back-up the reputation created by word-of-mouth networking can make a business seem . . . well, a little less than competent.

What these two modes of “low cost” marketing share in common is a lack of brand narrative. The branding becomes dispersed, arbitrary, and inconsistent in the name of frugality or simplicity. It is vital to remember, here, that simplicity is not the same as efficiency, even if they will often seem similar traits on the surface. Just because a burden of effort is momentarily lifted from your bank of leadership responsibilities does not therefore mean you will have no consequences from that lifted burden. And a deficit brand narrative is an inefficient creative asset.

Decoding the phrase “brand narrative.”

Many business owners tune right out at the utterance of the phrase “brand narrative.” It sounds too ephemeral and philosophical to be practical; too fruity-tooty and touchie-feelie to really seem essential. Which is probably why so many businesses just dismiss it and stick with the two methods of business development I mentioned above. At least they are immediately clear in “what to do.” They’re just simpler than trying to fathom what is meant my “brand narrative.” yet as we already mentioned, simplicity can undermine efficiency – and small businesses are not made of endless resources!

Let’s face the music, right here and right now, and get a handle on what the idea means, and how it is essential to your business growth. Let’s demystify the idea of brand narrative. (As a helpful side note, I strongly urge you to momentarily pause and go check out the piece on Branding versus Marketing versus Sales; it will give you a good handle on what is meant by “branding.”)

The brand narrative is, as a useful analogy, the measuring tape by which to judge each piece of marketing, advertising, or other creative assets, to insure that they are designed deliver your message effectively enough to draw new business. I think regarding it as a ruler is really useful because it helps represent brand narrative as a space with dimensions; everything “within this line” is strong branding, and everything “outside this line” is weak and inefficient branding.

The narrative of your brand is basically the set of rules by which all your creative must follow. Those rules can be design elements like colors or typefaces, but are more often thematic ideas and messages. The definition of your brand narrative need not be stingy and can encompass many elements, yet needs to be as concise as possible while covering the important promise-points of your service, product, or message.

The reason this list of criteria is called a narrative and not say, a “rulebook” or something similar is because of how these brand standards interact with the work. Obviously, every application will be slightly different than the last; sometimes brand is represented in a simple social media post, other times in a print ad, and yet other times as a whole event promotion. Each unique incident that is “well branded” strings together into something like a serialized story, which is why we say “brand narrative.”

As will any story, if there are random elements or tangents, the audience loses interest. In this case, that means potentially losing new business. Which is why it is so important to be concise in the details of your brand narrative and know which creative elements are working for you and separate out those that are not. In fact, it helps strategize new business outreach because your narrative “measures up” every idea, and helps you customize your approach so that you seem consistent and clear in your audience’s eyes.

A strong brand narrative does the work you didn’t have time for.

Suddenly we can see that efficiency is at the heart of a well constructed brand narrative. It is not merely some soft perception but a clear mission. A consistent brand narrative sorts out right before our eyes which creative assets will work, and which won’t.

This is particularly essential in saving time and money. For example, if a small business has a tight budget, they can construct a brand narrative which will help a Creative Director like myself develop messaging and design elements that can be used for long stretches of time, and determine where and how they’ll get used. Suddenly, the value for creative work drops because it is generating appeal for new business even without you babysitting it as much.

Likewise, with networking. If brand elements are consistent with the messages you deliver in interpersonal networking, then the new clientele are affirmed. Too often network-driven, referral-based businesses do not have correct banned narrative follow through in their media; their websites, presentation decks, or other media. So there is a conflict in messaging, in spite of their interpersonal savvy. Knowing the brand narrative and how it needs to be followed through literally speed sup direct networking by “greeting” new business with the same messaging they received from you directly.

While it may seem tempting to then jot down a bullet list of notes and declare your brand narrative established, you have to keep in mind it requires a bit more insight and analysis to really narrow down a concise narrative. Likewise, sorting out exactly what you want to do with that narrative – meaning, which pieces of media or promotions you want to invest in – also takes a careful analysis. You want to make sure that the life cycle of your piece doesn't;t bring your story to a close. Thinking through the story to the goal will often help shape the creative at the start of the effort.

In the end, brand narrative is probably more essential for a small business than some mega corporation, even if it is a marketing focus essential to everyone. A smaller enterprise has limited budgets, so needs their new business outreach to have an efficiency and a clarity that is far more essential than a business that has more safety nets to catch it’s business losses. Let’s make sure your own business narrative is not only clearly defined, but doing the extra footwork for you even when you didn't have the time to do it yourself.